Not Quite The Knight
by prouvaires
Summary: .:Pyro's quotes challenge response:. Shane and Mitchie are old and wrinkled, and expecting a visit from their over-large family. As Mitchie thinks about how much she loves them all, Shane awaits with dread the noise and chaos that is coming his way.


**Oops, I didn't realise Charlotte (howlsattthemoon) tagged me! But she did, so I'm just letting y'all know!**

**So, I tag **Kimani _(95_) **and **Sarah () **Good luck you guys!**

**30. "I'm not quite the knight I used to be."**

~x~

Mitchie and Shane had survived everything life could throw at them. From their teenage lives and dizzying rise to fame and fortune, to their whirlwind twenties when everyone was their friend and life could only get better, to their thirties and forties when suddenly a more mature couple found themselves the parents of no less than five children.

It was a scary prospect, Shane mused as he walked arm in arm with his wife of forty years down the banks of the river near their cottage. Until about twenty years ago he had everything he'd ever wanted. Then, right when it was suddenly just a bit sad to still be playing concerts in front of audiences of screaming girls, Connect 3 had gracefully retired. Mitchie had retired right along with them, choosing to focus on her (almost grown-up) family.

Now Shane and Mitchie had their cottage all to themselves, with a daughter at university, two sons and one daughter in the music business, and one son who had – after much consideration – decided to study engineering at a British university and now worked for a large company in London. The house was oddly quiet, and Shane had found recently that he didn't find as much relief in the peace as he had thought he would.

He glanced down at his beloved wife. Her hair was now a peppered grey, cut to her jaw, but still framing her face in a way that made him catch his breath. There were wrinkles and laugh lines around her mouth and eyes, but she was as beautiful as ever. Her eyes still glittered with that glorious innocence and mischief, despite the fact that she was far too old to be either innocent or mischievous.

"When is the Rabble arriving?" Shane enquired brightly, grinning down at Mitchie as she raised an amused face. He had referred to them as 'the Rabble' since he had realised he had too many grandchildren to count. That was another of the things about him that Mitchie found both adorable and annoying.

"Ben and Rosie are gonna be here with Rhys and Michael at about two, and then I think everyone else is arriving about half an hour after that," she replied with a hint of her former brilliant smile lingering in the grooves around her eyes.

Mitchie gazed up at her husband with deep delight. He was still the same Shane, no matter that his white hair was receding further by the day and that his face was carved with laugh lines. She adored him, and now that the five children she had borne him were grown up and gone away, she found that she had missed the good old days, before the kids and the responsibilities, back when there was just the two of them.

She missed her children a lot, but having them all round (plus grandchildren) for the afternoon was going to be a lot of fun. She always looked forward to seeing them, not only because she missed them so much, but because Shane always got the most picturesque look of total bewilderment as his home was overrun with small children and chattering adults.

At that particular moment, as she stared at him, a faint hint of apprehension crossed his features. Mitchie laughed softly.

"Don't tell me you're _scared _of our children?!"

Shane shook his head in immediate protest, linking his arm back through hers again and starting to make his way back to their home. "No, I'm not scared. It's just odd having so many children around. They get _everywhere_. Do you know what happened to Michael last time?"

Mitchie shook her head, grinning. Her grandchildren managed to get themselves (and each other) into the oddest places.

"Well, Rhys, Charlotte, Kim, and Ryan shoved him into the old bass drum in the garage! He's still a small kid, but I honestly have _no clue _how they got him in there."

They both chuckled, delighted – although also slightly confused – by their eclectic family.

Their two sons in the music industry, Ben and Henry, had each married within a year of the other. Ben and his wife Rosie, a lawyer, had two sons: Rhys, who had turned ten the month before, and Michael, who was a sturdy three-year-old. Henry had married an actress called Jenny, and they had four kids already: a boy, Hugh, aged fifteen, and three girls, Charlotte, Kimani and Hattie, who were thirteen, eleven and eight respectively.

Their one daughter who had chosen music as her career, Bella, was a single mom with a seven-year-old daughter called Amelia. Their other daughter was still at Uni, although she had a long-term boyfriend called Will, whom Shane didn't like much. Then there was Alfie, who had gone to read Engineering at Kings College London. He had an English wife called Sarah with two sons, James and George – aged sixteen and fourteen – and a daughter called Victoria, aged two and a half. Sarah had suddenly decided, once George reached double digits, that she wanted another baby. Victoria had been the long-awaited result.

Shane never beat himself up about not remembering which child was which.

Mitchie easily told them apart. She loved them all so much it hurt her sometimes, and she hoped that she was exactly the kind of grandmother they wanted. She guessed she was, because many of them – the girls at least – seemed far more willing to come to her with problems than going to their own mother.

Shane got his fair share of boy problems too. James had come to him one day – and he knew it was James because he was the oldest, and acted it – to ask about an issue he had with a girl at school that he really liked. Shane had done his best.

"Well, mate, just be you and … well … hope for the best!"

Despite his obvious lack of skill in the advice department, he still had many of his grandsons come to him with their problems, and he was secretly very proud to be considered so wise. He regretted that the wisdom had had to come with age, but seeing his family multiply and grow made him very grateful to be old enough to see it.

At some point during the time Shane and Mitchie each fell into their own silent thoughts, they reached their cottage. It wasn't that small, but it had room for pretty much any family (or ex-band members) that happened to drop by, and Mitchie and Shane were very proud of it. Shane remembered the time they had picked it out from all the others, about fifteen years ago. They had bought it and done it up, and now they lived exactly how they wanted to: surrounded by nature and beauty.

And also far enough away from civilisation that their grandkids could make as much noise as they liked without disturbing anyone.

As they entered the kitchen and sat down with cups of tea to await the arrival of the Rabble, Shane found himself feeling slightly tired.

"Are you alright, honey?" Mitchie asked, reaching across the table to grasp his hand. He smiled.

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm just not quite the knight I used to be, that's all."

And then the sound of several cars pulling up outside the house was heard, and then after a brief moment of silence when the engines were killed, there was a collective cry of "Grandpa! Grandma!" And ten children shot into the house, screaming like the maniacs the whole Gray family were.

"Here we go again," Shane muttered, wishing they'd all stay still and shut up for long enough for him to work out which was which, instead of leaving him completely and utterly bemused as the large family spilled out onto the lawn at the back of the house.

It was chaos, but in the nicest possible way.

And despite Shane's affectations, he really did love them all to pieces.

Even if they did give him a headache.

~x~

**Response to Pyro's quotes challenge! I think more will come soon, these things are literally chasing the plot bunnies towards me with swords.**


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